


Many Linear Returns

by Kahvi



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Comedy, Horror, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-12
Updated: 2014-04-12
Packaged: 2018-01-19 03:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1453354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kahvi/pseuds/Kahvi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Cecil's birthday, which marks the return of an old friend and companion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Many Linear Returns

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bentbackedtulip](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=bentbackedtulip).



> A little birthday treat to the lovely Bentbackedtulip.

Hello diary. I know you can hear me. I can see the light shining from the cupboard, and the air smells like roasted garlic again. I'm glad you're back, diary. I've missed you. Please forgive me for whispering, but Carlos is sleeping. Yes, _Carlos_. _The_ Carlos. Right here in my bed. You've missed a lot, diary, is what I'm saying. Look, maybe we should do this somewhere else. Can you meet me in the bathroom - no, the pipes, yeah. I should have thought of that. I'll make some tea; we can sit in the breakfast nook. Well, _I_ can. All right. Give me a second.

Diary? Oh. Good. You can still hear me. I'm not sure where you are, but I can smell you, and I feel that dull, familiar pressure behind my right temple. There's tea, but I don't suppose you drink tea. I mean, you're a book. I could make some coffee? OK, I'll take that sharp jab behind my eyes as a 'no'. It's been so long, Diary. I can't believe it's been a year already. Although it probably hasn't. I mean, it's my birthday today, and that happens at least once every twenty months. You won't remember this, but actually, my last birthday was on _this exact date!_ How's that for a wild coincidence.

Carlos doesn't seem to understand about birthdays. I told him mine was coming up, you know, because my hair had started falling out in clumps and growing back a different color. But when I mentioned that I had my heart set on ginger this time, he just gave me a sort of... look. A bit like the one he gave Khoshekh when I brought him home from the vet; sort of sad, disapproving, confused and concerned at the same time. Carlos is a complicated man. Maybe it's a scientist thing, or maybe he just doesn't like birthdays. I know he likes cats, except that he's allergic to them. I'm not sure if he's getting me a present. Not that he needs to, of course! But, I don't know; maybe I'm old fashioned.

You know, Carols said a funny thing, when I mentioned birthdays. How I didn't look a day older, I think, or... something about age, anyway. He says these things sometimes that make absolutely no sense. I suppose that's how relationships are; you never fully understand the person you love. Anyway, I thought that was odd. It was almost like he thought the passage of time, and aging, was linked. Which makes no sense; that would mean you got older and wiser as time went by, that you could learn from experience and change, rather than remain static and inert. Maybe it's always been like that for him; maybe he's lucky. That would be something though, wouldn't it? To know that cause and effect were truly, irrevocably linked; that you could turn around, and know that everything you loved was still behind you, still waiting when you turned back again. Oh, but I'm getting sentimental. Birthdays again!

You have to leave so soon, diary? But I haven't even gotten around to telling you about what's happend since last time! Assuming there was a last time. Always assuming time is linear, that's me! But it's so tempting, you know? I glance over the rim of my mug, out into the hallway, and into the bedroom beyond, and I _feel_ Carlos being there. I wish I could be certain. I would do anything to know that; to know my boyfriend always existed, to live in a place where I got older every year. It's so much easy to look forward when you can look back.

All right. I know you can't stay longer. Oh - happy birthday, diary! I almost forgot.


End file.
